Good to see the Tories are now on a similar footing as the Monster Raving Loony Party. I know who I'd rather vote for.

OH NO DISASTER WHAT A BAD IDEA

A-LEAGUE Goalie heads it into his own goal from outside the box.

It really is. I've watched it three times in the last week. Need to dig out one of my copies of the book to read for a 3rd time.

Andrew O'Neill's History Of Heavy Metal YouTube video by Andrew O'Neill

@av4apod.bsky.social Hey Dude. I don't know if anyone's sent you this, but it's definitely worth 90mins of your time:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzmH...

I know we're a few weeks on from Choose Your Own Adventure books, but I just finished reading Intan Paramaditha's The Wandering: A CYOA novel, where the devil gives a woman a pair of red Dororthy shoes with which to travel & you must choose the places she visits. A labyrinth of a novel.

Special Edition: Algeria - La Chute

Finally a reprint of something I wrote about Camus's La Chute:
worldthereading.blogspot.com/2025/12/spec...

The Gambia - The Gambia-Senegal Border et al.

Second Reading the World piece on The Gambia and it's complicated border with Senegal.
worldthereading.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...

Croatia - How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed/Café Europa Revisited: How to Survive Post-Communism

Couple of new Reading the World pieces. Not new, exactly but I keep forgetting to post them on social media. Slavenka Drakulić, Croatia and the post Communist era:
worldthereading.blogspot.com/2025/11/croa...

How George wrote The Beatles most popular song YouTube video by David Bennett

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f1j...

I loved Fighting Fantasy as a kid (they were the only thing I read for a time), but a shoutout to the Lone Wolf series, which were more like D&D in that you acqured new skills for each book you completed.

The real genius of Pluribus is how Vince Gilligan convinced Apple to make an allegory about Apple being a benevolent dictatorship.

London's Most Iconic Album Covers: Then & Now YouTube video by Robslondon

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CCa...

‘I want to ride out on a unicorn every night’: swords’n’sorcery heavy metal band Castle Rat Wielding fantasy weapons and splashing fake blood, the New Yorkers have even learned how to make chainmail outfits – and they’re already aiming to conquer stadiums

www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

The Heaviest Songs of the Universe (Part 3- Side B2): Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Linkin Park, and more!

🤘NEW EPISODE🤘

Listen Here
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
open.spotify.com/episode/4s5h...

Another great episode my friend. Of course, Maynard's whole schtick about flushing away LA is taken from a Bill Hicks routine. "Leaving nothing but a cool, beautiful serenity called... Arizona Bay."

I mean obviously Mary Shelley didn't say this.

#np Yup. Still perfect.

Goodreads has clearly started using AI to generate its pages and it is peak AI: Takes twice as long to load as it used to, but is in all other respects identical.

I can talk for hours about Finnegans Wake and yet I still have no idea what Tron was about more than 40 years after I first saw it.

I prefer King Size. As in, the length of a Stephen King novel:

I always count it as a 70s album, just like Queen's The Game. My 2nd favourite Bowie album, after Station to Station.

*judgement

It's literally the last 5mins people disklike and that colours their jdgement. Voyager has very few truly terrible episodes, compared to TNG and DS9.

#np Tom Waits - Rain Dogs. Happy 40th you mad bastard.

Every Edgy Millionaire Comedian YouTube video by Alasdair Beckett-King

Don't miss Buddy Nutzack's set in Riyadh. youtu.be/lRXn-g1s4T8

Sweden - Exterminate All the Brutes et al.

New Reading the World blogpost - Sweden, Strindberg, two authors called, Lindqvist, colonialism, vampires, James Joyce, Opeth, Bergman, and much more, it's got it all:

worldthereading.blogspot.com/2025/10/swed...

AfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers - an excellent collection of short stories by the likes of Nnedi Okorafor. I just discovered there are two sequels that I need to read.

My decision to stop using Google six months ago seems more and more justified. Trying to research anything while I was writing became infuriating.

Miyako (from LOVEBITES) / Painkiller (JUDAS PRIEST) - Piano cover [OFFICIAL VIDEO] YouTube video by LOVEBITES

www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3W5...